Helmuth Weidling

Helmuth Weidling (2 November 1891-17 November 1955) was the commander of the Berlin Defense Area of the German Wehrmacht during World War II.

Biography
Helmuth Weidling was born on 2 November 1891 in Halberstadt, Saxony, German Empire. He commanded an Imperial German Army airship during World War I, and he remained in the Reichswehr military of the Weimar Republic after the war. Weidling became an oberst in the Wehrmacht in 1938, and he led the XL Panzer Corps' artillery corps during the Battle of France and Operation Barbarossa. He also led an infantry division, and he led the XL Panzer Corps from the Battle of Kursk in 1945 until the Soviet invasion of Germany in April 1945. He took command of the LVI Panzer Corps during the Battle of Seelow Heights, and he also led the Berlin Defense Area during the Battle of Berlin. Weidling was forced to surrender to the Soviet marshal Georgy Zhukov on 2 May 1945, ending the bloody battle. He died in a Soviet prisoner-of-war camp in Vladimir, Russian SFSR in 1955.